Chicken Three Ways

In the cooking shows I watch they love it when a contestant cooks something Three Ways. It nearly always means they've done something complicated, like made a duck sausage stuffed in the duck's neck, duck sousvide, and crispy duck skin. However, the chicken I used for three meals last week is simple, yet certainly cooked three ways. This chicken will be enough for two.

Day 1 - Roast Chicken

Ingredients
A big chicken (2 kg)
A lemon
A few sprigs of rosemary
Half a bulb of garlic
An onion
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper

Preheat the oven to 240 degrees C. Prick the lemon all over and put it in the microwave for 40 seconds. Half the onion and take the cloves out of the bulb of garlic (don't peel). Stuff the chicken with the lemon and the rosemary and rub the olive oil all over the chicken, inside and out, and in the folds. Sprinkle over a decent amount of salt and pepper. Put chicken, onion and garlic cloves in a roasting tray. Put this in the oven and immediately turn down the temperature to 200 degrees C. Roast the chicken in the for at least the time recommended on the packaging (for a 2 kg bird, my supermarket recommended 105 minutes). Baste the chicken every 20 minutes or so (drizzle the juices in the roasting tray over the chicken, especially the legs and breast, so that the legs don't dry out and the skin becomes extra crispy). Take the chicken out of the oven and leave to rest for about 30 minutes. Take the rosemary and lemon out of the chicken and throw these away. Serve the legs and thighs of the chicken with boiled baby new potatoes and a simple salad.

Why this is simple - apart from getting over the possibly scary "I have to handle a dead whole chicken!" moment, preparation will take you less than 20 minutes. Then, while the chicken is roasting and resting, you have two hours to watch someone stress over their duck sausage masterpiece on TV. Excellent.


After dinner - make chicken stock for the next day (see below), or if you're fed up with cooking, at least put the chicken, roasting tray with onions and garlic and all, in the fridge covered in cling-film.


Day 2 - Chicken Soup
Ingredients
Yesterday's chicken, onion and garlic
2 vegetable stock cubes
100 grams of bean sprouts
200 grams of corn
1 leek
100 grams of dried egg noodles, broken up in small pieces
Salt
Pepper


You now have a chicken without its legs and thighs, but otherwise still fine. Cut off the breasts and put these in a container in the fridge (you'll use them on day 3). What remains is a chicken carcass with some bits and bops of meat on it. Cut this in half and put in a large pan with the onions and garlic. Cover with 2 litres of water and the stock cubes. Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and leave to simmer for at least two hours. Then take out the onion and garlic and throw them in the bin. Take out the chicken carcass pieces and start doing the fun job: tear the pieces of edible flesh (and offal, if you like it) off the bones with your bare hands and set these aside. Throw out fat, skin, bones and other nasty bits. Put the chicken flesh back in the stock. Clear your worktop because it's a huge mess now. Then chop up the leek thinly and put it in the soup with the corn and egg noodles. Leave this soup to simmer for another half hour. Then add the bean sprouts and serve.

Why is this simple - well, again, you have over two hours to watch TV. And there's the nice simple relaxing bit of tearing up chicken flesh.

Day 3 - Chicken enchiladas
The chicken breasts
2 avocado's, sliced
100 grams of creme fraiche
Tomato salsa
4 plain flour wraps
100 grams of cheddar cheese, grated
Olive oil
Mexican spice mix (cumin, chili, garlic, cayenne, smoked paprika, oregano)

Fry the chicken breasts with the spices until hot. Serve in the wraps with the sliced avocado, a dollop of creme fraiche, salsa and cheese. Enjoy!

Why is this simple - there's no waiting time, but the actual instructions are short and before you know it, you can laugh at the guy on TV who went all out with the duck three ways.